Sherline 5000 Mill Assembly Instructions

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order quantities and high “cutting charge” fees that make it
impractical to purchase small amounts from them. However,
there are now a number of suppliers that cater to the hobby
market. They have complete catalogs of the materials most
commonly used by hobbyists, and you can order as much
or as little as you need. The price per inch is somewhat
higher than industrial rates, but the convenience and overall
savings make it well worth it. There are several suppliers
listed in Sherline’s web site. Your local scrap yard can also
be a good source for raw materials at good prices. Bring
your own hacksaw, and be aware that the some yards are
better than others at identifying and organizing the materials.
If you are not sure exactly what kind of metal you are
getting, you could be letting yourself in for a lot of trouble
when you start cutting. See www.sherline.com/
online.htm for a list of sources for obtaining raw material
in small quantities.
THREE TYPES OF WORK
There are three basic types of work that can be performed
with a vertical milling machine: milling, drilling and
boring. It would be extremely difficult to determine
whether a vertical mill or a lathe would be the most valuable
machine in a shop. Theoretically, most vertical mills are
capable of reproducing themselves with standard milling
accessories such as a rotary table and centers. This would
be impossible on a lathe without exotic modifications and
attachments. These instructions briefly describe standard
vertical mill work. Many comprehensive books are
available on this subject, and, although the machines they
describe are much larger, the principles remain the same.
A good starting point is a book we offer called Tabletop
Machining. It is printed in full color and is available
through Sherline as P/N 5301. Sherline tools are used
throughout in all the setups and examples. Also available is
a black and white book, The Home Shop Machinist’s
Handbook (P/N 5300) by Doug Briney which features
Sherline tools as well. (See more on books and videos for
machinists on page 41.)
TYPES OF MILLING CUTTERS
Milling on a vertical mill is usually accomplished with end
mills. These cutters are designed to cut with both their side
and end. (See Figure 60, Page 35.) Drilling is accomplished
by raising and lowering the entire milling head with the Z-
axis feed screw. Center drills must be used before drilling
to achieve any degree of accuracy. (See Figures 50 and
69.) Note that subsequent holes may be accurately “dialed
in” from the first hole by using the calibrated handwheels.
Each revolution of the wheel will yield .050" of travel or
1mm for the metric machines. There is no need to start
with the handwheel at “zero,” although this can be easily
accomplished with the optional resettable “zero”
handwheels to make calculations easier.
Boring is a method of making accurate holes by rotating a
tool with a single cutting edge, usually in an adjustable holder
called a “boring head.” It is used to open up drilled holes or
tubing to a desired diameter. (See Figure 52.)
Another type of milling is performed with an adjustable fly
cutter, which may be used for surfacing. For maximum
safety and rigidity, the cutting bit should project from the
holder no further than necessary. A 1-1/2" diameter circle
of cut is quite efficient, and multiple passes over a surface
should overlap about 1/3 of the circle size. For machining
aluminum, use a speed of 2000 RPM and remove about
.010" (0.25 mm) per pass. (See Figure 68 on page 37.)
STANDARD MILLING VERSES CLIMB MILLING
It is important to understand that the cutting action of a
milling cutter varies depending upon the direction of feed.
Study the relationship of cutting edges to the material being
cut as shown in Figure 53. Note that in one case the tool
will tend to climb onto the work, whereas in the other case
the tool will tend to move away from the cut. The result is
that climb milling should normally be avoided except for
very light finishing cuts.
CAUTION! Because the tool spins on a mill, hot chips can be
thrown much farther than when using a lathe. Safety glasses and
proper clothing are a must for all milling operations.
FIGURE 52— Boring the inside of a hole to exact size
with a boring tool held in a boring head.
FIGURE 53—
Standard vs. climb
milling. For clarity,
imagine the cutter is
moving rather than
the part.
TOP VIEW
STANDARD
MILLING
CLIMB
MILLING